Companies' Interoperable Solutions Help Mobile Operators Bring Location-Aware Services to Mass Market while Minimizing Network Load

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. and PALO ALTO, Calif., Oct. 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Autodesk, Inc. (Nasdaq: ADSK) and Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) today announced an agreement to jointly market the first interoperable location-aware solution for the telecommunications industry. The solution will enable mobile operators to optimize the use of existing network infrastructure while offering new revenue-generating, location-enabled services to a mass market. It utilizes a patented, non-intrusive network monitoring technology which eliminates the need for continual network polling to track mobile subscribers and ensures the interoperability of third party solutions.

As a result, wireless carriers will now be able use the Autodesk(R) LocationLogic middleware platform and Autodesk's suite of location-enabled applications together with Agilent's acceSS7 Location, the industry's leading network-monitoring technology, to economically address the mass location-aware services market non-intrusively and without impact to their already stretched networks.

"Our research shows the market for location-enabled services is finally starting to move beyond early adopters toward a mass market," said Lars Vestergaard, research director of wireless and mobile communications with industry analyst firm IDC. "Of particular note, our projections show that close to 10% of European enterprises will use location-based services by 2008. In many cases service providers will need scalable location solutions to capitalize on this great market opportunity -- collaborations such as the one announced between Autodesk and Agilent should enable them to provide scalability in their location solution."

Currently, location services such as fleet tracking and friend-finder applications require that an operator's network be continually polled for location information in order to accurately track the mobile subscriber. With the interoperability of the Autodesk and Agilent solutions, the system non-intrusively monitors the network for subscriber location changes and eliminates the need to actively load the operator's critical network resources with location requests.

Each polling event requires at least 15 additional network messages to locate a subscriber's phone. For example, a fleet-tracking application, tracking 100 salespeople every 10 minutes over an eight-hour work day would create 72,000 extra messages a day just for that customer. These are messages that the network isn't provisioned for and that are unnecessary when using both the Autodesk and Agilent solutions.

"One of the key selling points of our offerings is that they will enable mobile operators to leverage their existing infrastructure investments, which is always welcome news," said Joe Astroth, executive vice president, Autodesk. "Autodesk believes European GSM operators will be particularly keen to take advantage of this interoperability."

The parties' mobile location solutions, now interoperable, are currently in trial and expected to be generally available in the fourth quarter of this year.

About Autodesk's Location Platform and Applications

Autodesk LocationLogic is a carrier-grade middleware platform for location-enabling services. It encompasses a scalable platform and the geospatial services needed for operators to offer their subscribers location-enabled services. The latest version, Autodesk LocationLogic 5, features support for location-sensitive alerts ("spatial triggers"), improved tools for managing dynamic content (such as traffic information) and subscriber data, and expanded real-time navigation support.

Autodesk's suite of market-ready, location-sensitive applications enable wireless subscribers can use these applications to find businesses or entertainment, get directions and traffic reports, and locate nearby friends and colleagues. Announced on September 28th, the new Autodesk(R) Mobile Resource Manager service enables small and medium-sized businesses across a variety of industries to easily locate, manage and communicate with a mobile workforce.

About acceSS7 Location

acceSS7 Location is based on Agilent's industry-leading, link-monitoring solution and newly developed hardware and patented software, which is able to acquire, correlate and analyze signaling data collected from A-bis and A-interface links in real time. The information is used to derive the location of all mobile handsets all of the time, with no upgrade required to the subscriber's handset. It also provides a continuous stream of real-time location information for all active subscribers, and because it is extremely scalable and uses data already in the network, acceSS7 does not affect the performance or operation of the network.

About Agilent Technologies

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) is a global technology leader in communications, electronics, life sciences and chemical analysis. The company's 28,000 employees serve customers in more than 110 countries. Agilent had net revenue of $6.1 billion in fiscal year 2003. Information about Agilent is available on the Web at http://www.agilent.com .

About Autodesk

Autodesk, Inc. ( http://www.autodesk.com ) is the world's leading design software and digital content company, offering customers progressive business solutions through powerful technology products and services. Autodesk helps customers in the building, manufacturing, infrastructure, digital media, and wireless data services fields increase the value of their digital design data and improve efficiencies across their entire project lifecycle management processes. Autodesk Location Services ( http://www.autodesk.com/locationservices ), a division of Autodesk, Inc., provides a complete solution that enables wireless network operators to quickly and reliably offer location-based services to their subscribers.

NOTE: Autodesk is a registered trademark of Autodesk, Inc., in the USA and other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders.

Contacts:

Cassie Stevenson, +1-415-507-5638
cassie.stevenson@autodesk.com

Johanna Vallecillo, +1-408-558-3627
Weber Shandwick, for Agilent
jvallecillo@webershandwick.com

SOURCE Autodesk, Inc.
10/26/2004
CONTACT: Cassie Stevenson of Autodesk, Inc., +1-415-507-5638, or cassie.stevenson@autodesk.com; or Johanna Vallecillo of Weber Shandwick, +1-408-558-3627, or jvallecillo@webershandwick.com, for Agilent Technologies Inc.
Web site: http://www.agilent.com
Web site: http://www.autodesk.com